In the agriculture industry, a large portion of time and effort is directed towards the production of feed for animals. When hay or straw is harvested from a field, it is typically tied into rectangular shaped bales through the use of automatic baling equipment, hereafter referred to as balers. These balers produce bales with a large variety of dimensions, but can generally be classified as small balers and big balers. Small balers generally produce bales that range in size from approximately 14″×18″×36″ to 16″×24″×48″ (hereinafter “small bale”), and big balers generally produce bales that range in size from approximately 2.5′×3′×8′ to 4′×4′×8′ (hereinafter “big bale”). Automatic balers usually deposit the bales in rows across the field, leaving them to later be picked up from the field and transported to a barn or other storage facility.
A variety of machines are available that can load and stack small bales, one of the most popular being the New Holland™ stack wagon series. There are also accessories available that provide a method to convert a small bale stack wagon to a big bale stack wagon. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,029 issued to Millsap a big bale loading accessory and method to convert a small bale stack wagon to and from a big bale stack wagon is discussed. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,534 issued to Stevenson the task of loading big bales and the conversion of a small bale stack wagon to a big bale stack wagon is also addressed. These references are incorporated by reference herein.
In embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus for a bale transport vehicle that saves time and labor over the aforementioned prior art inventions.